Saturday, September 10, 2011

Close your eyes. Today is 9/11. You're fleeing from a building just struck by a hijacked plane. You've fallen and you begin to feel the rubble from the World Trade Center or Pentagon fall on you.

You're scared when someone begins to unearth you from the dust and debris. When you look at your rescuer's face, what do you see?

For many on that September afternoon, the person who came to their aid, firefighters or rescue workers, military personnel, bystanders, or trained first responders, were women.

But our collective memory and social constructs almost inevitably have erased these brave women from the picture. In our imagined world, strong men were the ones who dove in and, in too many cases, died doing so, in order to save people from the devastation of the greatest attack on our soil in the nation’s history.

How did you arrive at Between X and Y?

At 29, I've done a little bit of everything from working as a professional journalist, to teaching at several colleges to directing the communications department of a national nonprofit advocacy organization.
Ever since I can remember, I've been fascinated with gender issues.
I've studied gender theory, communication and equality issues both independently and at Wilkes University where I earned my B.A. in communication studies, the University of Mississippi where I earned my M.A. in journalism and at the University of Alabama where I completed my doctoral work in communications.
I am originally from Orwigsburg, Pa., but currently live in Washington, D.C., where I write a column under the same name, Between X and Y, that appears on The Washington Times Communities Online.